


Family Party

by sbahjification



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Background izuleo, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Knights Mika AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 10:48:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13145076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbahjification/pseuds/sbahjification
Summary: Mika's first Christmas with Knights.





	Family Party

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday, mika!
> 
> this is the first thing i've posted of this au, so i should explain it a little: this is something my friends on twitter and i have been talking about, where mika either leaves valkyrie or was never in it, and joined arashi in knights instead

Arashi's legs swung back and forth, phone held up to her ear with a shoulder, hands occupied, one on her coffee, and one on her boyfriend. Mika was curled up against her chest, nursing a half-full cup of his own, eyes clinging to her skirt, her excited movements, the "Tsukasa-chan"s that rang out into the phone, anything but the eyes of the others in the cafe. Finally, the arm around him moved to flip Arashi's phone shut, then to pull him closer.

"He'll be here soon, Mika-chan. Of course that Ou-sama got himself stranded out in the cold, but it's, like, all the better that we get to ride there together, right? And enjoy some nice coffee in the meanwhile, all with a cute boy! Ah, I'm the luckiest girl in the world," Arashi cooed all at once, punctuating her last sentence with a poke at Mika's soft cheek, causing the latter to giggle and withdraw into her chest.

"Naru-chan, we're in public... 'm kinda scared'a what Secchan-senpai could want with us so late," he mumbled.

"We do this every year at Christmas! Either way, you wouldn't need to be scared, Izumi-chan knows that I love you and that I could kill him with my pinky finger if I had to." She gave him a loving but more than a little terrifying smile and added, "Without breaking a nail, of course," and he had to stifle himself from giggling into his coffee as she examined the nails in question, finding them satisfactory enough to ruffle Mika's hair with. "It's late so Ritsu-chan will be awake and he won't be left out, plus we can have a sleepover when we all get tired and open presents in the morning! This year will be extra special, too, I totally can't wait~" By now she was clinging to the boy, so flushed that he abandoned his coffee on the table to thoroughly hide his face and coughing slightly to signal to her that she was cutting off his breathing.

She let up for the sake of finishing off her cup, letting the heat course through her chilled body and handing Mika his own to do the same. When he did, Arashi's phone chimed with a Knights song, signaling to them that Tsukasa was outside in his car. "Be there in a minute," she singsonged into the phone, paying for their drinks and clinging to Mika for warmth in the snow as they hunted down the car.

Once they got inside, they were immediately greeted by a sopping wet embrace throwing itself over their laps and an exasperated "Leader!" from their left. Once settled in, Arashi pushed the intruding Leo off of her lap, leaving him to flop over a Mika who just laughed and petted his wet head.

"Mika-chan, don't encourage him..."

"Nooo, let him encourage me, it's not my fault I got lost," Leo purred, butting his head into Mika's hand like a big cat.

"It is most definitely your fault, Leader. The path from your house to the school is not a difficult one to take. Now, for God's sake, please remove yourself from Kagehira-senpai."

"No can do! There's no seats left for me, and he doesn't mind anyway. This is why you're my favorite kouhai, Mika, everyone else is so mean to me!" His clinging and protests didn't stop, and in their attempts to wrangle one of the boys away from the other, they had made it to the school anyway. Leo crawled out to play in the snow before any of them could even undo their seatbelts, effectively undoing any of the drying-off the car had allowed him.

The practice room was always familiar in location, but tonight stepping into it left Mika shocked with the entirely unfamiliar decorations. A huge tree adorned the corner of the room, with presents already shoved under it, and the three who arrived with Mika ran past him in his stupor to fill it to the brim, intruding on the otherwise peaceful and still scene of Ritsu staring up at them with dewy eyes from under the kotatsu and Izumi's smooth fingers running back and forth on a complicated-looking knitting project. The room was adorned with garland and string lights that gave off a bright light and bright atmosphere, and stockings hung off of the wall, each embroidered with a name, except for Mika's, which had a candy on it. The floor was cleared as much as it could be to accommodate six people sleeping over, but no one slept right now, running around and giving greetings, shoving presents under the tree to be unwrapped in the morning. The atmosphere was lively, and had work put into it - work that none of the surprised arrivals could have helped with, and that the vampire just now rousing himself from his stupor certainly didn't put such effort into. Mika glanced over at the last possible option, whose hands were now empty, and blue eyes glared back at him for a split second, as if daring anyone to accuse him of kindness, before softening into a smile.

"What are you standing in the door for? You're gonna make it cold in here, hurry up and get in," Izumi chided, snapping Mika back to reality, and he hurriedly ran to the car to get his bag full of gifts and shove them under the tree like the others, only to be tugged back when his arms were empty, spun around, and kissed full on the lips.

The panic lasted only as long as it took for him to recognize Arashi's always-sweet scent and always-soft lips, and when they pulled away his giggles started out shy and gentle as ever, until his eyes tilted upward to see Arashi wearing one of those ridiculous headbands with mistletoe dangling in front of her. He doubled over in laugher, tugging his phone out to take a shaky picture before Ritsu came over to reclaim his rightful property, putting the headband on himself and throwing his arms around Arashi and Mika in turn to demand repayment for letting them use his genius idea, ensuring that Mika's came with a bite and a wink that left him flustered. As much as Ritsu liked to do that, he would never get used to it, and clung to Arashi for support as the vampire trailed off with his nighttime energy to prey on the third-years.

The room quickly became lively again, between Izumi trying to get Ritsu off of him and chiding Leo for dripping all over the room that he had spent so long cleaning up, and the latter loudly proclaiming his inspiration to the world. Mika watched Ritsu's rampage get cut short, and Izumi put Leo in towel jail, hardly realizing he had picked up Arashi's quirk of resting a hand on her cheek when she laughed.

After a failed attempt to break free of towel jail, Leo hatched other plans, throwing a water-stained composition to the side to call out to everyone else.

"You guys~ If I can't stay in, I'm going to go out! Your king declares a snowball war!! Wahahahaha!" With that, he was gone, throwing the door open for the chill to overtake the room. In going to close it, Izumi became the target of the first snowball, and his blue eyes lit up with a fire that was only enhanced by the gloating laughter coming from outside. 

"Why you- I'll get you for that, you brat!" Even if he refused to join in the childish mirth, it was easy to tell he was having fun, and Arashi wrapped her scarf quickly around Mika before running to the door.

"Not so fast, King! Everyone knows the Queen is much better in battle~!" With her battle cry, she set for outdoors, Mika hastily running after to protect her and return her scarf, taking a sacrificial snowball in her honor.

"Naru-chan, ya gotta stay warm, y'know?" he quipped, throwing her scarf back around her as quickly as he could before getting blasted again. "Yer the queen, 'n I'm jus' a pawn, so all I gotta do 's stand in front of ya, right?"

"For goodness' sake, Mika-chan-! First of all, you're going to collapse out here, and secondly, you're a knight now!" While her hands were distracted shoving the scarf back on her partner, a snowball landed directly in her face, thrown by a Tsukasa that smirked directly at her and started scooping up another. "So," she stooped down to defend herself and chucked a snowball right back at him, "you need to fight too!"

With her words on his mind and her scarf on his neck, Mika took up the helm and assaulted her enemies mercilessly. Like that, truces formed, and Ritsu, energized by the night, evened the teams out by joining his classmates in what became an all-out war, neither side wanting to relent and throwing snowballs back and forth until the ill-prepared got chilly fingers and Mika unified the sides by grasping on to Ritsu's and Izumi's also-bare hands to share the warmth between the three of them. Despite their protests, neither pulled away, and the three left over wandered off to take on a different project.

When the huddle disbanded, they started a search for the others - and completed it immediately, eyes falling onto the snowman they'd built on their own. Arashi reclaimed Mika, warming him up and pulling him over to get a good view of the front. 

After snapping some pictures and selfies, the unit made their way back inside to escape the chill. Leo and Ritsu immediately started fighting for the kotatsu, and the rest slipped away in the same direction as Izumi, towards a small kitchen setup of a microwave and a mini fridge with some milk. They teamed up to make themselves and the resident kotatsu-hogging cats some hot chocolate, using the sacrifice of obviously high quality hot chocolate made by Tsukasa, except in the cases of Leo and Mika who preferred the cheap kind. 

With that mission complete, they huddled up in and around the kotatsu. The couples tested out their peppermint-and-chocolate-flavored kisses, in between fighting off Ritsu, who was back to tormenting them with his mistletoe angler. 

Mika let his head rest against Arashi's chest as he took in the atmosphere. Having stolen a seat under the kotatsu, his legs were warm, and Arashi was warm, and the hot chocolate was warm, and the joy of everyone in the room was so, so warm that Mika felt like he could drift off to sleep and dream about this moment forever.

But that was an impossibility, when there was laughter, shouts, arguments over something like a game Leo was trying to drag the rest of the knights into ("Haaa? Two of us are models, and you want to play Twister??"), but he refused to relent, and threw Tsukasa at the helm to commandeer an intense game of Twister that, predictably, Izumi won, and with their fair share of jokes about his flexibility slung, they divided up into their own games.

"Kagehira-senpai, if I may?" Tsukasa began as soon as he got the chance, seated at a table. "That previous game was rather undignified, so I would like to challenge you to some Chess instead."

"Nnah, but I dunno how to play?" Regardless, he sat down and allowed Tsukasa to teach him. While the boy usually looked on him with some sort of jealousy, tonight he seemed interested in closing the gap between them, and his face of concentration when he talked about something he knew well was too endearing for Mika to let the chance slide. "Hey, Kasa-kun? Why's it that yer always glarin' at me? Ya seem real nice, so if I did somethin' ta make ya mad, 'm sorry..."

"Ah, do I? I apologize, I simply can't help but feel a bit jealous whenever I see my senpai getting spoiled before myself. Of course, you cannot be faulted for it, being a new member and all, so it is rather ungraceful of me to make you feel hated. I would like to be your friend, Kagehira-senpai."

"'Zat all there is to it? Yeah, they spoil me a bit much, huh. I wish I could spoil ya, 'm just still short on money 'n all. I like playin' games with ya, though, so we can do that anytime~"

"You are rather dilgent, are you not? If you ever find yourself in need of somewhere to go, my family would pay you handsomely should you want to be a servant. In any case, playing games with you is enjoyable. I often play Chess during lunch, should you ever wish to join me."

"Ya jus' wanna beat me cuz I'm bad at it, don'tcha? That's fine, though, thank ya kindly for the offer. I don't got much ta do during lunch nowadays, huh."

"Precisely." With that, Tsukasa checkmated his unwitting partner with a smile.

They carried on the rest of the night in such a manner, everyone except Ritsu growing progressively more tired, the latter at the peak of energy when they began to curl up on each other for the night. Refusing to let them sleep just yet, he started tossing pillows. 

"Come on, we're finally all awake together, we should have some more fun~"

"Ahh, Ritsu-chan, you're really always like this, even at the school trip we were on... I guess Mika-chan was sick that day, so, he shouldn't miss out. Keep away from my face, though, would you?" A pillow smacked Arashi directly in the face, and she took the declaration of war to launch one right back at the offending Ritsu. Izumi and Tsukasa huddled in their blankets away from the ensuing chaos as the others burnt up all their energy, finally collapsing into their places with sleepy giggles. Mika cuddled up against Arashi like he did every night at home and fell into a sweet dream full of hot cocoa and pillowy marshmallows that jumped out at him in a playful war dance.

-

"Santa-san has really come...! Everyone, please wake up and look, there are exquisitely wrapped presents that were not here last night!!" Tsukasa found his way to each person, shaking them slightly before moving on in his excitement, and Mika only watched him passively, trapped under a resistant and strong Arashi that just wanted "a few more minutes, Tsukasa-chan", as he shuffled around under the tree, searching for more gifts from "Santa-san".

It was cute, Mika figured, and his face broke out into a smile. "Did he really come visit, Kasa-kun? Lemme see, 'm trapped under Naru-chan, so I can't come look with ya." Tsukasa obliged, bringing over a large present labeled "To: Mika / From: Santa", and he boggled at the size. "Wow, Santa-san must be feelin' real generous this year. Naru-chaaan, I wanna open it, c'mon, there's bound ta be one fer you, too..." With his persuasion, she finally woke up, stretching, and the both of them circled around the tree, eventually joined by a groggy Ritsu, pouting Izumi, and extremely energetic Leo, all of them claiming their own presents.

Mika opened up a grand total of five - the sixth was handed out personally by Leo, who looked like he hadn't slept, and apparently for a reason, given the meticulously-noted compositions.

From Izumi, who insisted he open his first after the events of last night, a pair of mittens and arm-warmers for if he were dragged into the cold again.

From Ritsu, a kit for making friendship bracelets, coupled with a warm smile and a note that there was enough for the six of them to all make one.

From there, the presents only got larger. Tsukasa's was almost impossible for him to move, and with good reason - there was enough candy contained in it to feed him for probably a year. When he sat marveling at it, Tsukasa defended himself by talking about how Marvelous it was that Mika preferred commoner candy, and how difficult it was to choose just one and he bought out half of the store instead. Mika opened up one of the packages and shared it among the room as he continued.

From Arashi, the biggest present of all, was a massive teddy bear he had been glancing wistfully at whenever they went shopping. He only had time to get out a quiet "Naru-chan..." before she shut down all of the objections he didn't even voice and insisted he move on and thank her later.

From Santa, there was a tightly-packed collection of mangled stuffed animals, each with matching thread and some miscellaneous fabric and craft supplies. At that, Mika had to choke back tears, running up to each person and giving them the tightest hug he could muster.

"Thank y'all, thank all y'all... This's been one of the best Christmases ever, my presents can't even hold up ta all this..."

"Nonsense! I can feel the love in these! It's filling me with inspiration!!" Leo interrupted, already scribbling out a composition in the notebook the plushie he received held, with a glitter pen he had also gotten from Mika.

Each person in turn got a plushie, a personalized one that Mika thought they would like, coupled with something else small that, although not expensive, had enough thought pouring out of it for Mika's hugs to be given right back. Arashi immediately clipped in the floral barrette, Izumi decided the lotion was up to his standards, Ritsu immediately tested out the bat pillow's accommodation, and Tsukasa was fascinated by the "commoner" treats, enough so to not notice when Mika slipped some of the candy he'd been given back over to him.

With presents out of the way, they emptied the fancy hot cocoa, the cheap one becoming a sacrifice to whoever grabbed it first, and gathered around the kotatsu again, playing with their gifts, scribbling, or napping, save for Izumi and Mika, who took up the roles of cleaning all the wrapping.

"Haaa... Seriously, so annoying, leaving their mess everywhere," Izumi muttered to no one in particular.

"But ya clean it up anyway, without even bein' asked, 'n ya set everythin' up all nice fer us. Yer a real sweet guy, Secchan-senpai."

"Shut your mouth or I'm taking those plushies back- I mean- Agh, annoying brat... Go finish your hot chocolate before you say some other stupid thing."

"Yers is coolin' too, yanno... Unless I'm hinderin' ya or somethin'."

"You're not, it's nice to finally have some help around here with all these morons."

"Then let's clean up nice 'n fast 'n get back to our cocoa!" Mika started darting around and sweeping up the leftovers in a practiced manner, joining back with Izumi at the circle. Quickly he was held captive by Ritsu, seeking out a pillow, and Arashi, seeking out her boyfriend.

"Mikarin, this pillow is so nice~ You know me so well, I'm jealous of Nacchan... Let's make those bracelets, so you can be mine too~" 

At his request, Mika dug for the bracelet kit, and all of the knights designed and swapped bracelets, no matter how unenthused they (Izumi) seemed. Over leftover cocoa and Mika's massive supply of snacks, they energized themselves, singing songs and catching up on gossip. Only when they were made aware of how late it was in the day (thanks to Leo and his wanderlust) did they start to file out, promising to see each other back at school, but ending up in the same direction anyway as Tsukasa insisted on escorting them all home.

They packed up all of their presents and finally departed again at Arashi's house, she and Mika making their way in and forgetting gifts at the door immediately upon seeing Nyanko and spoiling her with affection as an apology for her being alone so long.

Given that their favorite cafe was closed for Christmas, Arashi instead settled for a proper breakfast of not-candy made from home, and they settled in bed with Nyanko and a generous stack of chocolate chip pancakes each. Mika took a while to finish his, being compelled to kiss Arashi every time his eyes flitted over to the massive teddy bear he put front and center of his stuffed animal collection.

"Naru-chan, yer so good to me... 'N so nice, I dunno how t- Ah, I forgot, I forgot!" He sprang up and dug under the bed, pulling out a pretty, but not very seasonally appropriate sundress made of a nice floral fabric. "I didn't wanna give it to ya in front of everyone else, or they'd get jealous 'n all, but I made this fer ya... It's ta go with the hairclip, ya see."

"Oh my God. Mika-chan, this is, like, the best thing you could have given me ever, ah, we have to go out tomorrow, I could wear it with some leggings. Come here, dear." She pulled him back onto the bed, stealing the dress and more than a few kisses from him, prompting the shy giggles he always let out in this situation.

"Naru-chan... 's not that great, but if ya like it, 'm glad."

"I _love_ it, dear. Merry Christmas~"

Mika gave her a kiss of his own, and when he pulled back his face was flushed and grinning as he took her hands.

"'N I love you. Merry Christmas♪"


End file.
